Univision appears to be pulling out all the stops to portray Sen. Marco Rubio as “the bad guy” to its viewers.
The intent to portray Rubio as an enemy of the immigrant community was evident from the outset of the April 15 edition of Univision’s principal national news program, when anchor María Elena Salinas read the following headline tease: “in an interview with Univision, Marco Rubio says if he achieves the presidency at some point, he would eliminate DACA.”
The fear-mongering headline certainly did not do justice to what the Senator explained in regard to the subject in the interview, in which he discussed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (a version of which he sought to establish through legislation in 2012, prior to President Obama establishing it through an Executive Order).
What did Rubio specifically say about DACA to Univision? “I believe DACA is important. It can’t be terminated from one moment to the next, because there are already people benefitting from it,” said the Senator in the interview with Salinas’ co-anchor, Jorge Ramos.
In the interview, Rubio makes clear he favors ending the temporary DACA program as part of a permanent, legislative fix to federal immigration law. As Rubio points out, those who favor DACA also understand it is not a permanent solution to their problem. “It can’t be the permanent policy of the United States, and I don’t think that’s what they’re asking either. I think everyone prefers immigration reform,” Rubio told Ramos.
Reporting Rubio’s actual position on the subject of immigration seemed to matter less to Univision, though, than framing the Florida Senator’s position in the worst possible light to their audience, as is evidenced by both Salinas’ and Ramos’ interview introductions.
In the interview, Rubio actually stated he believes he will be able to achieve immigration reform as President, and that he is opposed to mass deportation, but far be it from Univision to highlight that. No, the opposing party’s narrative and demagoguery apparently must prevail.
Below are the translated and original portions of the referenced Noticiero Univisión (4/15/2015) segments:
English Version:
MARÍA ELENA SALINAS: …and in an interview with Univision, Marco Rubio says if he achieves the presidency at some point, he would eliminate DACA and cut diplomatic relations with Cuba.
[ ]
JORGE RAMOS: …the Cuban-American Senator from Florida Marco Rubio just launched his candidacy for President of the United States, and I asked him what would happen to DACA, that is to say, with the Deferred Action Program that has temporarily legalized hundreds of thousands of undocumented students. His answer was that eventually that program would have to end.
SEN. RUBIO: I believe DACA is important. It can’t be terminated from one moment to the next, because there are already people benefiting from it. But yes, it is going to have to end. It can’t be the permanent policy of the United States, and I don’t think that’s what they’re asking either. I think everyone prefers immigration reform
JORGE RAMOS: But then, to clarify, you would put an end to DACA once immigration reform is approved, but what would happen Senator if there is no immigration reform, would you cancel DACA anyway?
SEN. RUBIO: Well, at some point it is going to have to end, that is to say, it can’t continue being the permanent policy of the United States. I believe, if I become President, it is going to be possible to achieve immigration reform. It is not going to be comprehensive, that is to say, it is not going to all be in one massive bill. We already tried that a few years ago. We’ve seen there isn’t political support for it and I think we’ve wasted a lot of time in this process, when we could have made progress through the steps I’ve advocated. Unfortunately, a lot has been spent with that, it’s become an even more controversial subject, more difficult to make progress on, but I’m still saying it’s important to modernize our system and that means improving the way we enforce in the future, modernizing the immigration system so that it isn’t as costly and bureaucratic and we have to deal with the 12 million human beings who are here and no one, no one is advocating a plan to deport 12 million people, so that topic has to be dealt with as well.
Original Spanish:
MARÍA ELENA SALINAS: …y en entrevista con Univisión, Marco Rubio dice que si llegara a la presidencia en algún momento, eliminaría DACA y cortaría relaciones con Cuba
[ ]
JORGE RAMOS: …el senador cubano americano de la Florida Marco Rubio, quien se acaba de lanzar a la presidencia de estados unidos y le pregunté qué pasaría con DACA, es decir, con el programa de acción diferida que ha legalizado temporalmente a cientos de miles de estudiantes indocumentados, y su respuesta fue que eventualmente ese programa tendría que terminar.
SEN. RUBIO: DACA yo creo que es importante, no se puede terminar de un momento a otro porque ya hay personas que se están beneficiando, pero sí se va a tener que terminar. No puede ser la política permanente de Estados Unidos y no creo que es lo que están pidiendo tampoco. Yo creo que todos prefieren una reforma migratoria.
JORGE RAMOS: ¿Pero entonces, para aclarar, usted terminaría con DACA una vez que sea aprobada la reforma migratoria, pero qué pasa senador si no hay reforma migratoria, cancelaría DACA de todas formas?
SEN. MARCO RUBIO: Bueno, en un momento determinado se va a tener que terminar, es decir, no puede seguir siendo la política permanente de Estados Unidos. Yo sí creo que si salgo presidente va a ser posible lograr una reforma migratoria. No va a poder ser integral, es decir, no va a poder ser todo en un Proyecto masivo. Eso ya lo tratamos hace un par de años. Hemos visto que no existe el apoyo político y creo que hemos gastado mucho tiempo en este proceso, cuando pudimos haber progresado a través de los tres pasos que yo he abogado. Desafortunadamente se ha gastado mucho con eso, se ha convertido en un tema aún más controversial, más difícil de progresar sobre este tema, pero sigo diciendo que es importante modernizar nuestro sistema, y eso quiere decir mejorar la manera en la cual enforzamos [hacer cumplir la ley] en el futuro, modernizar el sistema migratorio para que no sea tan costoso y burocrático y tenemos que lidiar con 12 millones de seres humanos que ya están aquí y nadie, nadie está abogando por un plan para deportar a 12 millones de seres humanos, así que hay que tratar ese tema también.
